East Cavan Gaels players and mentors celebrate after winning the Cavan SHC Final. Photo credit: Mary Mauger.
By John Harrington
On July 2, 2009, East Cavan Gaels hurling club was born.
On August 11, 2024, they won their first ever Cavan senior hurling championship after victory over Cootehill Celtic.
The 15 years in between had all sorts of ups and downs and tears of frustration as well as joy, but they’ve now reached the top of the mountain like they always said they would.
Willie Gaughan and Kathryn O’Flynn were the two original true believers when they established the club and as club Chairperson and Secretary respectively they remain hurling evangelists to the core.
They’ve both given countless hours to spreading the gospel of hurling in Kingscourt, Bailieborough, Killinkere, Knockbride, Shercock and Mullagh and have effectively built a church from nothing.
How does it feel to be finally rewarded for the faith they’ve shown in their mission?
“It's fantastic, absolutely brilliant, because hurling doesn't have pride of place in the weaker counties where we are and to get a day like Sunday after 15 years of work with this club with a bunch of young lads is absolutely brilliant,” Gaughan told GAA.ie.
“10 of the lads who were in the starting XV on Sunday started with us 15 years ago when they were eight, nine and ten and ploughed their way through many hard years when it was easier to walk away. You need to be at the coal face to know the frustration of hurling at the lower levels and they kept plugging away and some of them were outstanding.
“The likes of Jack Barry who plays with the county team and has a youger brother Tadhg. Absolutely outstanding. Fabulous hurlers who would fit into any other county's team. Delighted for them.”
GAA President Jarlath Burns has said he wants to be the catalyst for an explosion of new hurling clubs during his three-year term and in East Cavan Gaels we have one blueprint of how it can be done.
They learned to walk before they could run, building patiently up through the underage ranks and gradually extending the player pathway in the club.
They had some notable successes along the way, winning a national Féile title and an All-Ireland U17 club title as well as a number of underage Cavan titles.
The East Cavan Gaels hurlers pictured before the Cavan SHC Final. Photo credit: Mary Mauger.
Eventually the time came seven years ago when they felt they had a generation of young players who were ready to step up to the senior grade.
“The first two or three years were very, very challenging because we were getting hammered by everybody and we had to learn some lessons the hard way,” says Gaughan.
“But then after three years the second wave of young lads who had won a Féile turned 18 and were able to join the senior panel and that really lifted things.
“We entered the Cúchulainn League and entered pre-season spring leagues as well so our younger fellas were getting a nice introduction to senior hurling and developed from there.
“This year we were able to enter the Monaghan senior league and we got to the final three weeks ago where we lost to Inniskeen by three points but were very competitive.
“So over time we've been growing and developing and getting better and better and that's all culminated now with this first county senior title.”
East Cavan Gaels are very much a homegrown club, but the influence of a handful of ‘blow-ins’ is very considerable.
Gaughan himself is one, he hails from Meath, while Kathryn O’Flynn is a Cork woman.
James Tully in action for East Cavan Gaels in the County SHC Final. Photo credit: Mary Mauger.
Team manager Adam Baldwin is a native of Waterford, while a handful of players who have made East Cavan their home have added a dash of experience and class to the mix.
“We've picked up two or three wonderful players in the last few years but they're local to us,” says Gaughan. “Nicky Kenny from Kilkenny who played with Cuala for years when he was in Dublin has settled down here in Virginia and he joined us a few years back.
“Canice Maher played minor hurling for Kilkenny in, I think, the 2009 minor final. His wife gave birth to a baby girl on Friday afternoon and he still performed on Sunday. He's local to us, he's a school-teacher in Mullagh and lives in Bailieborough and is a big part of our community.
“Liam O'Brien from Waterford is a trainee vet and is down here for two years and we're overjoyed to get our hands on him for the two years that we'll get him and he made a big difference this year.
“Those lads are fantastic for our younger fellas to be able to train and play with that level of a hurler who has a great attitude and takes hurling very seriously which wouldn't be the way down here. It's a great example for them and really helps develop our lads.
“Of the 27 lads who were on the panel on Sunday, 22 of them are our own who've spent countless hours developing over the years. Lads who were very ordinary when they started out have become very good.
“You need to stick with them, particularly around the ages of 15, 16, 17. At that age it's very easy to drift away. We had some lads who were very talented but for whatever reason they drifted away because they didn't see that hurling was going to fulfil them in any way at all.
“When I looked at our lads on Sunday night and monday afternoon they were pleased as punch and proud of themselves that they stuck with the project. Sometimes they couldn't see what we thought we could.
“When we started out in 2009 we said we'd win a senior championship by 2020. That was a little bit over-ambitious but we have it now and it's such a great spring-board.”
East Cavan Gaels captain, Rory Farrell, lifts the cup after victory over Cootehill Celtic in the Cavan SHC Final. Photo credit: Mary Mauger.
Establishing and growing a hurling club in a traditional football county isn’t a task for the fainthearted and even though they’re now county champions Gaughan is under no illusions that there will be always considerable challenges to overcome.
But there is at least a degree of satisfaction that they’re now building on solid foundations and that this championship success should make that job a little bit easier.
“What I'm really delighted about is that the younger lads in the club now have something to aspire to,” he says. “The lads who won on Sunday had nobody in front of them, they did all this themselves.
“They ploughed this furrow themselves but the lads who are now coming behind them can see now what can be achieved if you stick at it so it might be easier to persuade them to come on this journey with us.
“You can play three or four sports and have the joy of hurling in your life and be part of the wider hurling community. We've great friends in Monaghan, Longford, Sligo, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Donegal, and Tyrone. We're all in the same boat trying to give the game to people so they can enjoy it and love it as much as we do.
“We love the game and we were fortunate that some great people gave it to us when we were small and all we want to do is to give it the small lads that we have now and hopefully they'll grow in to men and pursue it themselves.”
East Cavan Gaels have no intention of resting on the laurels of their first senior championship success.
The East Cavan Gaels hurlers celebrate with the cup after victory in the Cavan SHC Final. Photo credit: Mary Mauger.
They have a positive relationship with the Gaelic football clubs in their catchment area when it comes to the use of facilities for training and matches, but the big dream is to someday have a home they can call their own.
“We rely on the kindness of our local clubs for the use of their facilities,” says Gaughan.
“Going forward integration is the big thing for the GAA and what's happening locally is that we're kind of getting squeezed because ladies football is now so popular to the point that some of our local clubs would now have more females than males playing.
“That explosion has put a lot of pressure on the resources of the clubs so availability of pitches can sometimes be difficult.
“So I think one of our next moves in the coming years will be to find a plot of ground and create a home of our own. Rather than people wondering where we're training this week, we'd have our own home.
“10 or 11 acres would be lovely and it would be even better if the GAA could gift it to us but we'll probably have to go and get it ourselves and put down roots.
“That's probably something that would show people it's really tangible. That we're here for the long-term. To have a venue of our own would just magnificent and hopefully that's something we can work towards over the course of the next 10 years or so. Then people would be able to say there's now a home for hurling in East Cavan.”
